DHARAMSHALA, June 17: The largest pro-independence group o the Tibetan Diaspora, the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) on Sunday elected its new leadership after the tenure of the previous executive members have run its course here at Dharamshala where its headquarters are based.

The seven-person executive members known as the centrex was elected on the last day of the 17th General Body Meeting where 150 delegates from its 45 regional chapters took part in the voting. Gonpo Dhondup was elected the new President with Lobsang Tsering as their new Vice President and Sonam Tsering the new General Secretary.

Dhondup said that while he has no specific agendas outlined at the moment, the new leadership headed by him will strive to continue the work of his predecessors and build on that. He said that during his tenure, he will uphold the core objectives and rules of the organisation that seeks complete independence for Tibet from China.

Outgoing President Tenzing Jigme who was voted at the helm of TYC for two successive tenures from 2013-2019 said that as Tibetans, the new leadership should always put at the fore the importance of the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama in their activities.

He also said that the new leadership should strive to take the standards for its political activities a notch higher in the future and also build alliances with other countries and people who are afflicted by the Chinese regime such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines and Japan in the hope to form a united coalition against Beijing.

Jigme’s Presidency for the last six years, observers say, has amiably deescalated in many ways than one, the image of the pro-independence group that in the last decade had an image of a staunch opposition of the status-quo of the exile Tibetan set-up. In the last six years, many say that Jigme has been successful in his bid to rekindle positive ties between the larger Tibetan community and the organisation and even having an audience with the Dalai Lama for the members of the organisation.

His predecessor Tsewang Rigzin during the 15th General Body Meeting in 2013 publicly apologized saying TYC as an organisation has never intentionally slandered or belittled His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan administration in Exile, in what is now seen as a stormy time for the pro-independence organisation.

The TYC was founded in 1970 and today has the most grassroots reach in the exile Tibetan community by a NGO, with over 40 chapters worldwide and 30,000 members.

Phayul – June 17, 2019 20:17
By Tenzin Dharpo

Official Statement of Tibetan Youth Congress on December 10, 2018 International Human Rights Day.

Tibetan Youth Congress to carry out Social Services Campaign during the upcoming teachings of HH the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya this Dec-Jan.

Tribute to Kusho Palden Gyatso. A true Tibetan Hero.

བོད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་གཅེས་དཔའ་བོ་དགེ་འདུན་པ་དཔལ་ལྡན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ལགས་འདས་གྲོངས་སུ་སོང་བའི་ཡིད་སྐྱོའི་གནས་ཚུལ་བྱུང་བར་བོད་ཀྱི་གཞོན་ནུ་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་དང་ཚོགས་མི་ཡོངས་ནས་རྒྱལ་གཅེས་པ་ཁོང་གི་འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པའི་ལྷག་བསམ་དང་ཞུམ་པ་མེད་པའི་སྙིང་སྟོབས་ལ་རྗེས་དྲན་གྱིས་མྱ་ངན་གུས་འདུད་ཞུ།
བོད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་གཅེས་དཔའ་བོ་དགེ་འདུན་པ་དཔལ་ལྡན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ལགས་ནི་རྒྱ་དམར་གྱི་བཙོན་ཁང་ནང་ལོ་ངོ་ ༣༣ ཙམ་བཙན་གནོན་མནར་གཅོད་མྱོང་ཡོད་པ་དང་། བཙོན་གྲོལ་ཐོབ་རྗེས་བཙན་བྱོལ་དུ་ཕེབས་ནས་བོད་མི་འདས་གསོན་གཉིས་ཀྱི་མངོན་འདོད་བསྒྲུབ་ཆེད་ལྷག་བསམ་དང་སྙིང་སྟོབས་ཞུམ་པ་མེད་པར་མི་ཚེ་ཧྲིལ་པོར་བོད་དོན་ཐོག་ཕྱག་ལས་གནང་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཟད། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༦ ལོར་བོད་ཀྱི་གཞོན་ནུ་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་གོ་སྒྲིག་ཞུས་པའི་ཟས་བཅད་ལས་འགུལ་ལ་མཉམ་བཞུགས་དང་། ཁོང་དང་ཡོ་རོབ་བོད་མིའི་སྤྱི་འཐུས། བོད་ཀྱི་གཞོན་ནུ་ལྷན་ཚོགས་བཅས་མཉམ་རུབ་ཐོག་རྒྱ་དམར་གྱི་འགོ་ཁྲིད་སེ་པན་ཁྲིམས་ཁང་ལ་ཞུ་གཏུགས་ཀྱི་ལས་འགུལ་ཡང་སྤེལ་ཡོད་པ་རེད།

 

 

TYC Campaigns for Tibet at UPR Session in Geneva

 

The 31^st Session of the United Nation Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review started on the 5^th of November and will go on till the 16^th of this month. Yesterday marked China’s third human rights situation review by the United Nations whereby the issue of Tibet witnessed an increased number of diplomatic support from the UN Member States in the UNHRC. 13 States criticized China’s abuses in Tibet, 9 countries raised 12 recommendations regarding China’s Human Rights abuses in Tibet. During China’s second UPR in 2013, 7 States made recommendations relating to Tibet.

 

Recommendations made by the 9 States on Tibet in 2018

 

• Australia

Cease restrictions on Uyghur’s and Tibetans freedom of movement and allow media, UN and foreign official’s access to Xinjiang and Tibet.

• Canada

End prosecution and persecution on basis of religion or belief for Muslims, Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong

• Denmark

Denmark recommends the Government to facilitate full access to Xinjiang and Tibet for all relevant UN special procedures.

• France

Recommend guaranteeing Freedom of religion and belief including in Tibet and Xinjiang

• Germany

Respect rights of freedom of freedom of religion and belief, opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and culture also for Tibetans, Uyghurs and other minorities

 

• New Zealand

Respect, protect and fulfill the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion in accordance with general comment 22 of the HRC (HR Committee). To this end, New Zealand recommends that China resume the two-way dialogue on Tibet

• Sweden

Take urgent steps to respect the rights of persons belonging to ethnic minorities including the rights to peaceful assembly, to manifest religion and culture, in particular in Xinjiang and Tibet

• Switzerland

China should respect all HR of the Tibetan people and other minorities including the importance of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment which is vital for the enjoyment of a number of these rights

• USA

Release those imprisoned for rights and defense work, including Tashi Wangchuk, Ilham Tohti, Huang Qi and Wang Quangzhang.

Cease interference in the selection and education of religious leaders – including the reincarnation of Tibetan Buddhist lamas.

 

In addition to the recommendations, Austria, UK and Japan raised Tibet critically in their statement to China. Advanced written questions on Tibet had been raised prior to the review by Belgium, UK, Sweden, USA, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

 

The Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), the largest Non-Governmental Organization in exile has submitted a report on Human Rights Violations in Tibet in collaboration with the Human Rights Network for Taiwan and Tibet (HRNTT). The Joint Report highlighted issues regarding the lack of basic human rights and freedom inside Tibet and how China taking steps to Sinicize whole Tibet. The report also flagged lists of recommendations for the member states and UN Human Rights mandate holders.

As China’s UPR was being held in the UNHRC, Geneva on the 6^th November, TYC President Tenzing Jigme with other hundreds of Tibetans, Ughyurs, Southern Mongolians, Taiwanese and Vietnamese protested at the United Nations in Geneva to urge the UN to hold China accountable for their actions in these countries. TYC President Tenzing Jigme spoke at the rally and made two main points;

• We shall continue our resistance and be that voice for our brothers and sisters inside Tibet and East Turkestan.
• We Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, and Taiwanese need to work together for our movements to be a strong and successful one.

Third China’s UPR left the Tibetans, Uyghurs, and others with a sense of greater hope to see more numbers of the member state coming up and raising their voice against China for Human Rights Violations and to holding China accountable as a member of the United Nations.